The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without payment of any royalties thereon or therefore.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cleaning an oil boom, and more particularly to an oil boom cleaning device having the capacity to simultaneously clean both sides of float and skirt type oil booms of marine growth or other contaminants.
2. Description of the Related Art
Floating oil booms that are used to contain spills of oil and flotsam and jetsam have been used for many years,. Many of these booms are deployed at the site of the spill. The oil booms are transported by boat to the spill site and when the clean up effort is complete the booms are removed from the water and stored until needed again. However, some booms are used in harbors or at fuel filling stations to contain dockside spills and the booms are left floating in the water in various length sections for quick containment of any spills.
One disadvantage that oil booms kept in the water for quick deployment have over oil booms that are stored dry and deployed as needed is the need for periodic cleaning. Booms stored in the water become havens for marine growth such as algae and barnacles. Without periodic cleanings the booms become heavy, making it harder to pull the booms into position, and negatively affect the boom buoyancy. This negative buoyancy can affect the ability of the boom to contain spills in choppy water. Additionally, boom surface marine growths make clean up of any spills harder because the growth will absorb some of the oil spill requiring the marine growth to be cleaned off the boom and treated as non-reclaimable hazardous waste.
Floating oil booms of the float and skirt type that is suitable to contain oil spills or flotsam and jetsam are well known. Such typical types of booms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,049,170; and 5,580,185.
Presently oil booms that are left floating in the water for quick deployment are periodically cleaned in a messy and time consuming effort involving pulling the boom out of the water and scraping the boom by hand. There are known various devices to clean marine growth from boats or ships. Such devices generally would not be suitable to cleaning floating oil booms as the devices are configured to the shapes of hulls and not to the extremely narrow and pliable skirts of oil booms.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to remove marine growth from both sides of the oil boom simultaneously in a more quick and efficient manner without requiring the removal of the booms from the station area.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a self contained cleaning apparatus that floats and may be towed to a convenient location to clean the floating oil booms without the need for the booms to be taken off station.
In accordance with the present invention, a cleaning apparatus for removing marine growth from an oil boom comprises a floating platform, a water pressure generator and a pair of tracks to guide the oil boom through a set of pressure spray washers directed at the oil boom surface. Preferably the floating platform includes ramps at the front and rear to allow for a smooth transition from the water to the deck of the floating platform. The floating platform includes a storage tank that may be used to collect the wastewater if it contains any hazardous contaminants.
The floating cleaning apparatus of the present invention preferably is self-contained and does not require a water or power source from the shore or dock. The floating cleaning apparatus includes a diesel or gasoline powered engine that pressurizes water taken from the body of water, whether fresh, salt or brackish, where the cleaning apparatus is floating and then supplies the pressurized water to the spray washers to clean the boom.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and will in part be obvious from the description, or may be learned from practicing the invention.